- Digital sufficiency: conceptual considerations for ICTs on a finite planet, Tilman Santarius et al., Annals of Telecommunication, 2022.
- Permacomputing. Viznut, 2021.
- What might degrowth computing look like? Neil Selwyn, 2022.
- Solar Witch. A tiny solar-powered server only awake during the day. More at hackernews.
- What if the internet was only available 95% of the time? Interview with Kris De Decker about the solar powered website. Inside/Out Radio, April 2022.
- The Website Carbon Calculator thinks the solar powered website is run by fossil fuels….
- What It’s Like To Stop Using Google Search, Clive Thompson, 2022.
- The Staggering Ecological Impacts of Computation and the Cloud. The MIT Press Reader, February 2022
- Meet the Self-Hosters, Taking Back the Internet One Server at a Time. Vice, September 2021
- The Modos Paper Laptop. More at Hackernews.
No Tech Reader #32: Sustainable Computing
May 18, 2022 by Filed Under: Computers, Internet, No Tech Readers
State of the Art of Windthermal Turbines
May 16, 2022 by Filed Under: Heating appliances, Wind Power, Windmills
As Low-tech Magazine wrote in 2019, given the right conditions, a mechanical windmill with an oversized brake system is a cheap, effective, and sustainable heating system. Earlier this year, Malte Neumeier from the German Aerospace Center informed us that he and his team are investigating the technical and economical challenges of the technology.
“We started our research, with a birds eye techno-economic analysis and a scoping review. The results were promising, so we decided to build our own prototype. To refine our analysis, we are now searching for people, who already have experience with this technology. Maybe we could discuss some lessons learned. Do you have contact to any person experienced in wind-thermal energy applications? I would really appreciate this.” [Read more…]
Bike Powered Water Pumps
May 16, 2022 by Filed Under: Human power, Water, Water management
The Spanish NGO Azada Verde works with rural communities in Mozambique to develop sustainable and local food systems. Their bike powered water pumps save the local population much time fetching water. The pumps each supply 10 litres of water per minute. So far, 67 bike powered water pumps have been installed.
All images by Azade Verde.
Small Scale Hemp Processing
May 9, 2022 by Filed Under: Farming
Reader Martin Monin shares some links around hemp processing:
I don’t know if you have some research or an article under preparation for this, but as you know, hemp is an extraordinary plant for the low tech transition, and yet its use is still marginal, as it’s costlier than cotton/concrete and the other chemical/petrol substitutes.
There are multiple parts in the process, from the retting of the plant (which can be done naturally by letting the plant in the field after its cut, or chemically – like the Chinese do). And then decorticating, separating the fiber from the stem, and the flower/seeds. From my small research, it seems that the industry is more looking into huge machines to process the huge fields of American and Australian farmers. But there is not much around small scale farming, and I was wondering if you knew of any low tech projects around hemp processing?
Here is a machine made in Latvia that seems interesting but does only a small part of the whole process : https://hurdmaster.com/
And another project between USA and Zambia to build a whole hemp processing facility, very interesting : https://ehemp.house/
The dream would be to build a micro autonomous plant that produces seeds + flowers for CBD extraction, fiber for textile production and hurd for construction isolation…
Best,
Martin
Reconstrained Design & Locally Produced Gravity Batteries
May 5, 2022 by Filed Under: DIY, Energy storage, Gravity Powered Machines, Random
The Reconstrained Design Group at the Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute in Portugal “challenges the dominance of the grid system through developing functional prototypes that operate outside of its control”.
Solutions include gravity batteries to provide night-time storage from solar or wind power using the natural phenomenon of gravity in vertiginous regions. The uniqueness of this battery is its ability to be built, installed and maintained by local communities using local materials and techniques and to not rely on any external help or funding. It uses basic physics principles to provide an easily achievable and efficient way to store energy without conventional battery systems.”
Also check out their manifesto and publications.
No Tech Reader #31
May 5, 2022 by Filed Under: Digital technology, Internet, No Tech Readers, Politics, Repair
- The Technocrat’s Dilemma — Expert rule is destroying itself. Alexander Stern, The New Atlantis, April 2022. “Technocrats, when they speak in public, use the rhetoric of objective, neutral, scientific knowledge to justify policy decisions that are not — cannot be — fully “based on science”.”
- In the dark: How authoritarian regimes found an off switch for dissent. Rest of World, Peter Guest, April 2022. “The free, open, global internet is under severe threat. Blackouts and mass censorship risk fragmenting the internet and even undermining its physical integrity.”
- Their bionic eyes are now obsolete and unsupported. IEEE Spectrum, Eliza Strickland & Mark Harris, February 2022. “More than 350 blind people around the world with Second Sight’s implants in their eyes, find themselves in a world in which the technology that transformed their lives is just another obsolete gadget.”
- In the Battle Over the Right to Repair, Open-Source Tractors Offer an Alternative. Greta Moran, Civil Eats, April 2022. “The idea is to create more regional, country-level manufacturing for farm equipment, rather than having farmers rely on the major global manufacturers whose sales don’t benefit the local economy.”
